Return On Investment For Implementing An Information Governance Program

When it comes to increasing your healthcare organization’s return on investment (ROI), implementing an information governance program might not be the first thing that comes into your mind. But did you know that information governance (IG) enables an organization to better achieve its goals and strategies with trusted, reliable information, resulting in a return on investment? Trusted, accurate information strengthens every organizational strategy.

According to Karen Proffitt, MHIIM, RHIA, CHP, vice president of identity enterprise solutions for Just Associates, Inc., the enterprise master patient index (EMPI) is a key aspect of an enterprise information governance program. The return on investment for EMPI program centralization and management includes increased efficiency, productivity, and reduced costs. Just do the math: The average cost of a duplicate medical record is $100 due to delayed treatment, duplicate tests, and other administrative issues. Now think about how a centralized strategy to minimize duplicate medical record number creation can reduce costs.

Not only can information governance reduce duplicate records, it can also make electronic health records easier to use, which ensures the reimbursement organizations are entitled to collect.

(source: http://bok.ahima.org/doc?oid=301349#.Ws5UDJdCTic)

Employees often spend a lot of time searching for old content for reuse and reference. When the relevant data cannot be found, they’ll spend even more time recreating that data. Implementing an information governance program will ensure that data can be found fast and easily. No more time is wasted to recreate lost information, which leads to productivity cost savings through information governance automation.

Storage savings are also an important aspect because of content reduplication and disposal. Your organization will be able to identify and dispose of expired and unneeded data, freeing up a significant amount of storage resources. New storage purchases can be delayed.

(source: https://www.microfocus.com/media/white-paper/the_true_roi_of_information_governance_wp.pdf)

Change is inevitable. But in health care, the pace of change seems to be even faster. Staying on top of transformations can be challenging. Health care organizations need to be open to information governance as an effective way to thrive in the world of consistent change in today’s health care environment.

Fortunately, IG awareness and understanding appears to be improving. “There is increasing recognition of IG as an important initiative in healthcare and of AHIMA as a leader in the promotion of IG within the healthcare industry,” stated The American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA).

(source: http://bok.ahima.org/doc?oid=301349#.Ws5UDJdCTic)

Return on Investment (ROI) is the ratio between the net profit and cost of investment resulting from an investment of some resource. As a performance measure, ROI is used to evaluate the efficiency of an investment.

(source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Return_on_investment)

Realistic costs and time estimates before and after program implementation is critical. But if information is easier to find and manage, it’s clear that the organization will benefit. A strong IG program enables organizations to use their information to achieve business objectives.

Implementing an information governance program is not a one-time project. It is an ongoing, repeated practice that can help ensure healthcare organizations are able to deliver safe, quality care using reliable data, resulting in return on investment. The time is now to make that a reality for health care.

PCG’s Information Governance Consulting Team supports AHIMA’s IGHealthRate™ as the only information governance (IG) assessment specifically created for healthcare and our consulting team uses IGHealthRate™ to enable an interactive evaluation of an organization’s information protection, maintenance, and governance practices and provides guidance for organizations to advance practices on a path to AHIMA’s IGAM™ Level 5.

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